For well over a year now, the ACLU has been urging the government to level with the public about the number of civilians that are being killed in its drone strike/targeted killing operations. The government has been tight-lipped — refusing even to confirm or deny the existence of any records relating to civilian casualties in CIA drone strikes. Last month, however, John Brennan, the White House’s top counterterrorism advisor broke this silence, telling reporters that “in the last year ‘there hasn’t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities that we’ve been able to develop.'” (more…)

Afghan civilians compensated for deaths, injuries and property damage caused by British forces received £1.3m last year from the Ministry of Defence – but this was, on average, less than half of what they asked for. (more…)

This week, the American Civil Liberties Union released a letter it received from the Department of Defense confirming that it does not compile statistics on the total number of civilians that have been killed by U.S. unmanned drone aircrafts since September 2001. (more…)

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The only ambulance service in war-torn Mogadishu said Wednesday that more than 4,200 bystanders have died in warfare the last two years, and a U.S. group that works to prevent civilian deaths said Somalia is more dangerous for civilians than Afghanistan or Iraq.

Last December, a young boy from Orakzai Agency in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) lost his mother during Pakistani military operations in the area. Jan Mohammed’s village was given ten minutes notice to evacuate before the Pakistani military began shelling. “Our house was up in the hills and my mother was coming down the hill track when the military started shelling. She was hit by one of the shells and died on the spot. If my mother was killed by the Taliban, one can expect it from them because they are crooks. But one can’t expect it from a trained army…they are here to protect us not to kill us like rats.”

In a new report out today, CIVIC documents civilian losses as the result of armed conflict and their consequences. Since 2001, Pakistani military operations, US drone strikes, militant and terror attacks, and other forms of conflict-related violence have killed or injured thousands and displaced millions in northwest Pakistan.

CIVIC’s Christopher Rogers spent a year living in Pakistan and conducted 160 interviews with civilian victims, including in the northwest. The report provides an in-depth, firsthand account of civilian victims’ urgent needs – needs that receive too little attention from all parties involved.

CIVIC argues an obligation of all parties – the US and Pakistani governments, the Pakistani military, and militant groups – to recognize and redress civilian harm. The report also proposes specific measures for warring parties and their partners to finally acknowledge, dignify, and make amends for losses of civilians caught in the crossfire.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – The Department of National Defence paid just over $650,000 during the course of two years to compensate Afghans for damages and deaths resulting from Canadian operations. In the 2009 fiscal year, the department paid out $205,828 in 102 ex-gratia payments for damages and losses suffered by Afghan civilians, according to reports by the Receiver General of Canada. The payments ranged from as low as $104 to as much as $14,424.